Thread by @_richardblack

THREAD: More figures on gas imports to and exports from the UK just released by government, this time for December gov.uk/government/sta…

Like those for September, October and November, which I highlighted last month

https://twitter.com/_richardblack/status/1486721893277134849

, they show gas flowing out of the UK at an unusually high level for the time of year

8,363 gigawatt hours (GWh) of gas flowed out in December 2021. The December figures in previous years are:
2020 - 4,753
2019 - 4,866
2018 - 3,333

In other words, in the middle of a gas crisis that is pushing bills skywards, Britain exported twice as much gas as normal in December

When I previously highlighted this for the preceding few months, a few people (including I think @oilsheppard) suggested this was because the UK was importing more LNG and, without much storage in the UK, companies were transferring it to the EU where there is more storage

The data contradicts this theory. LNG imports for the four months of the price crisis for which we have data - Sept-Dec 2021 - totalled 47,629 GWh. The equivalent figures in previous years were:
2020 - 52,938
2019 - 87,935
2018 - 45,538

Now: once again, no-one's doing anything wrong here. Exports are exactly what you would expect. Britain doesn't own North Sea gas - it's owned by whichever company extracts it, which then trades it on international markets at international prices -

- one of the reasons why Shell and BP are making profits estimated at £900 per second mirror.co.uk/money/oil-gian…, while the myriad smaller firms you've never heard of that now own most of the North Sea - along with China National Offshore Oil Corporation - trouser similar sums

If the government gave more financial carrots in an attempt to stimulate more North Sea production or grow a fracking industry, we'd be in exactly the same position unless ministers nationalised the industry or imposed export restrictions. Neither is politically on the cards

As things stand therefore, in a global market, more production in the UK cannot affect prices for consumers - which ministers have now admitted - or meaningfully affect security of supply

Bottom line: there is no such thing as 'our gas'. It's a phrase that should be banned, as should 'we should frack' - because given the set-up of the oil and gas industry in the UK, there is no 'we'. Once again the gas exports, given the price crisis we're in, prove it